Thanks for these two suggestions! I've tried them both, but could get neither to do what I need: gtk-recordmydesktop insists on recording the whole virtual screen (3200x1200), which is way too large... xvidcap lets me select a rectangular area of the screen to be recorded, but then wants to place its control buttons on top of it (and moves the area if you move the controls), which doesn't work for recording a window almost as tall as the screen (I'm using a tiling window manager).
– Riccardo MurriSep 20 '10 at 13:03

10

We've removed xvidcap from the repository now because it's no longer maintained.
– popeyMay 14 '12 at 7:40

4

@RiccardoMurri: gtk-recordmydesktop does allow you to record only a selected screen area. Just drag a rectangle in the preview area.
– MestreLionSep 21 '12 at 4:47

5

gtk-recordmydesktop gets Linux-screenrecording crappiness to a new level. It actually recorded different parts at different FPS :D Audio syncing (which of course fails) is REALLY hard after this.
– Henrik HeinoApr 19 '15 at 0:04

It is available for 16.04, and you don't have to add a repository to get it. Just sudo apt install byzanz and it goes. Cons: low frame rate and doesn't capture full resolution or color space, so colors get distorted and shapes get aliased and motion is choppy. To figure out what parameters to give it, use the xwininfo command, click in the window you want to record, and it will tell you the x, y, width, and height that byzanz wants.
– Blair HoughtonApr 22 '18 at 17:58

I installed kazam but the output for mp4 is .movie and when I try to play it it gives me "there is no application for sgi video files" Also I cant locate the stop button on gnome.
– SurvMachOct 22 '14 at 3:09

5

I had glitch issues with recordMyDesktop, while Kazam works just fine. It is also faster as it generates an mp4 right away as soon as you finish recording.
– Juampy NRMay 19 '15 at 21:52

2

wow, I capture 90 second screen by kazam and exported video size was 3.2Gb
– ghanbariMar 9 '16 at 11:06

Simple Screen Recorder

SimpleScreenRecorder is a Linux program that I've created to record programs and games. There are programs that can do this, " but I wasn't 100% happy with any of them, so I created my own "

My original goal was to create a program that was just really simple to use, but as I was writing it I started adding more and more features, and the result is actually a fairly complex program. It's 'simple' in the sense that it's easier to use than ffmpeg/avconv or VLC :).

For Ubuntu versions 12.04 - 16.10 it is not in the standard repositories and can be installed with the following:

I've just installed this and after a bit of working through the settings I've been able to record just a window of the screen which is all I needed and it works simply really well. Thank you.
– PeterJun 20 '16 at 10:42

6

Must say, this is a very usefull app, easy install, works as expected, well done. I uninstalled gtk-recordmydesktop for this. select rectangle ftw!
– FrancoisMay 19 '17 at 7:04

Recently I tried to record a screencast with audio. I tried many of the options listed here and other websites. My goal was not to write a comprehensive summary of all tools available, but to find a single one which works.

In my case (after several hours of struggling) it was VOKOSCREEN which worked, so I did not look further.
My system is Linux Mint 15 Olivia, 64-bit, which is based on Ubuntu Raring.

This is my summary/log which I wrote while experimenting. Hope it will save you several hours:

avconv: audio and video get out of sync, audio is lagging behind
Tried all the options I could.
This is the command line I used:

gtk-recordmydesktop: creates ogg which is fine, but unable to convert to anything. Best converter was mencoder but is speeds up video (but not audio) so they get out of sync.

istanbul: freezes immediately

Kazam: if record area larger than ~640x480 memory starts leaking, leaving at most a few minutes before system becomes unresponsive. Many have reported similar issue, this is a known bug.

pyvnc2swf: Is a tool to record a VNC session. Not convenient if you want to record your own screen (not tried)

screenkey: advertised as a "screencast tool", but is not about recording your screen

tibesti: seems to be no longer maintained (since 2011), does not even install

vokoscreen: FINALLY!!!!
Quality is good: both audio and video.
After recording I could compress the file to about 1:7 with mencoder without any loss of quality.
I discovered that it uses the following command line:

Am pretty sure the bug mentioned for Kazam is gone because I have recordings from 2015 and 2016 that go beyond 30 minutes (Biggest is 2 hours 19 minutes) with no problems at all and perfect recorded session.
– Luis Alvarado♦Mar 12 '16 at 14:04

I use vokoscreen on Ubuntu 14.04. I noticed one small problem though: the video recordings are moving "fast". I mean, if you create a video of yourself and other people and animals, when viewing the video, you will notice that you all move almost as fast as in the old classical black-and-white movies from the beginnings of cinematography. I have tested this several times, using all kinds of settings - same weird result!
– Cristiana NicolaeSep 10 '18 at 19:11

First thing i looked was the last changelog. I like it that it says 2011. And it looks like it is progressing nicely for when natty comes out. i will try it out but i read it does not yet work with 3D OpenGL stuff.
– Luis Alvarado♦Apr 5 '11 at 16:33

How to create an animated (GIF) screenshot

Added bonus with this approach is that you can post the screencast without embed tags on any forum that includes animated GIFs as embedded like this

The answers prior to mine have clearly answered how to create a video screencast. Now if you just want to show an animated screenshot, essentially an extremely short screencast in an image format (GIF, and not more than ~10 sec), it's also easy.

First create a screencast of what you want to show in the animated GIF. Then follow the instructions below...

You'll need Gimp, mplayer (WARNING! NOT mplayer2) and mencoder. Issue the following commands to install them.

Now you have the images, but you need to combine them into a single, animated GIF. This is really simple:

Start Gimp > File > Open as Layers > browse to the directory (~/Desktop/animated/), Ctrl+A to select all images, and click 'Open'.

Simple hit Shift+Ctrl+S or go to File > Save As... and name the image as 'animated.gif' > hit 'Save' > check 'Save as Animation' radio button > hit 'Export' > in the next window, simply hit 'Save' unless you know what you are doing.

That's it. You have your animated GIF ready!

Here's an example:

PS: I am not very comfortable with the terminology when it comes to this kind of stuff, but I hope I am clear nevertheless. :)

Note: The "fake" ffmpeg from Libav has been depreciated (within Libav) and has been replaced by avconv from Libav. The "deprecated" message does not apply to the real ffmpeg from FFmpeg which is unaffected and is still under heavy development.

Gnome 3 already seems to have a very simple thing to do record Screencasts - you can assign what shortcut it uses in Keyboard settings. It records the entire screen, and records directly into a webm file (a fairly widely used format) into XDG_VIDEOS_DIR - by default "$HOME/Videos".

By default, to start recording, press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R. You'll see a circle displayed on top right corner to indicate recording is in process.

Kdenlive is a free open-source video
editor for GNU/Linux and FreeBSD,
which supports DV, AVCHD and HDV
editing. Kdenlive relies on several
other open source projects, such as
FFmpeg, the MLT video framework and
Frei0r effects.

Thanks for all of the great suggestions here. My recommendation for tools that will work great for recording audio, video and editing the screencast is Camtasia and Screenflow. If you're looking for more ideas on recording your screen and creating an engaging screencast then check out this post: http://www.mediacore.com/blog/how-to-record-your-screen-and-create-engaging-screencasts It includes tons of tools and tips on audio, video and editing your screencast

Thank you for your interest in this question.
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